- 2 months ago
Two couples assume the lives of early settlers to the West. Using only the resources and tools of the period, they will attempt to build homes, raise livestock, hunt and grow crops.
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00:00Piano music
00:30I think one of the things that's missing with us doing this that we didn't, it didn't, it's not similar to the settlers is that I can leave if I want to.
00:54For the settlers, I think it would have been, especially their first year, you know, the crops fail the first year and there's so much rain and so much mud and so many bugs and just be down, you know, you'd be wanting to, you wish you were back in your own country you'd come from or wherever you came from.
01:11I think it would be really, just really difficult knowing you couldn't go home, that this is home no matter what.
01:24Go Duke and Diamond.
01:40June 19th. Frank and Tim begin plowing the soil in the south pasture and discover rich black earth.
01:47They'll seed barley here in the hope it will yield the crop they need to feed the animals over the winter.
01:53The locals say it's been decades since this prairie grass was turned by plow, long enough to make it seem like virgin land and make this pioneer experience real.
02:04They said it was easy, plow, once you get the bite and whatnot. I don't think I've discovered the bite. Maybe if you were a cowboy you could say the closest thing would be pushing a bull to the other end of the corral.
02:20This thing was like, it's like running and shoveling at the same time.
02:25Yeah, yeah that's for sure.
02:27Usually you know when you work out or something your hands are not doing a lot of work really.
02:31With this sort of stuff here your hands are working so much and squeezing so tight in everything we do.
02:36Even some of the other work we do too. I know tomorrow when I wake up I won't be able to close my hands.
02:41When I get home boy my boys won't arm wrestle me.
02:45Strong like bull. They beat me, they beat me two weeks ago but not when I get back.
02:49You watch it guys you're in for a good arm wrestle.
02:55Once we disc it and break up the grass and plant our barley we'll get a minimal crop but we'll get a good ground breaking for next spring start.
03:10Yeah we may not get a real good crop this year but it's a start for what we're going to be putting next year.
03:15Settlers always had a figure for the next year.
03:19There's more confidence with each pass of the plow.
03:23Back in camp it's a different story.
03:26There's a struggle going on to bring some order to the wilderness.
03:29We're just trying to organize our clothes as you know we've been in rain for two solid weeks here almost and it was just a mess.
03:39Of course we couldn't get organized and finally Tim was able to make us these gorgeous shelves.
03:44They don't look very gorgeous but they sure mean an awful lot to us because now we can at least put our stuff up.
03:48We just had it in gunny sacks all over the place and oh man it was just chaos.
03:55Are you going to put a divider up in here?
03:57Yeah we are. We're going to put up a curtain up here so that we will have some of our own space.
04:03Obviously they'll still hear Tim snoring in the night but at least we'll have a little bit more privacy.
04:12Well you wanted to move the well and move the tent.
04:17Well I was thinking of moving the well and the tent.
04:20And you guys kind of were, well you've seen all the work we did to dig that well.
04:25The last thing it was very frustrating.
04:30Last night the pioneers had their first big argument.
04:35It was bound to happen sooner or later.
04:38We want to work as a team and help so it would be hard to sit here saying you build the well yourself if you're going to do another one.
04:43I can see you moving. I can see you moving.
04:45They're two strong-willed couples living under one canvas roof and under pressure to produce their own food and shelter.
04:53They're modern day people who've been turned into settlers and sent back to survive in the 1870s.
04:58They have to learn how to work as a team.
05:02Them trying to make us like them and us trying to make them like us isn't going to work.
05:06We realize Tim and Deanna are a lot more emotional people.
05:09Like they like to share, like Deanna said the other morning, let's all say something today that's good about today.
05:15Or let's all say something that's good about each other.
05:17Where the whole idea of doing that irks me.
05:20And I can do it in little ways but I can't be all feeling touchy.
05:24And Frank and I are the other way but we're coming across rude.
05:26And so it's finding a medium where we can be supportive and help each other.
05:31Or else this project's not going to work if we're not going to work together as a team.
05:35The team has other troubles.
05:38One of these pioneers has doubts about being here.
05:41Tim was really into it. I know Frank really loves it.
05:44And I found that I was getting frustrated because I wanted Deanna to be loving it as much as we were and be as optimistic as we were.
05:51And I didn't feel like she was so I was finding it really hard. I wanted to be encouraging but I was frustrated too.
05:57Have you thought about leaving? Honest.
06:00Yes. Yes I have. I have to be honest. I mean not that I would go but oh lord give me a reason to go.
06:07Tim what about you? Deanna said she's here for you.
06:16What a woman. Hey.
06:19Um. She said I would go for Frank.
06:22I was not dragging her kicking here. No. No. I mean you definitely wanted to do this and I knew this was something that was important to you and I love you very much and I wanted to do it for you.
06:35How are you?
06:40The show producers arrive and find the pioneers talking about building two houses instead of one.
06:46They're saying they need some privacy if they're going to get through to next June.
06:50But it'll come at a price.
06:52The extra materials will eat into their budget and they have just $518.70 for the year.
06:58The settlers have agreed to stay here until next spring.
07:06But there's news that Deanna's close cousin has died.
07:10The funeral is a four hour drive away.
07:13She decides to leave for a day to grieve with her family.
07:17It's a tough battle.
07:19A cynic might say she's just going to the funeral to escape for a day.
07:24No. No. Because I really thought about this very very clearly or very carefully.
07:31Uh. No. I definitely would not. I'm going with apprehension.
07:37Um. Because like I said it's perhaps easier just to stay here than to go out into the real world.
07:42It's hard. Um. Being a mom and having left your three boys at home in your own home.
07:47Them taking care of your own home.
07:48Um. But I did this for my husband because he really wanted to do that.
07:53Now I know a lot of people would criticize that.
07:55Uh. What would you call submissive spirit?
07:57But you know we've been married a long time.
07:59There's a lot of give and take in marriage.
08:01A lot of giving towards one another.
08:03And even though it's a sacrifice sometimes on your part.
08:06You're giving back a hundred times.
08:09It's morning.
08:11And Deanna's sister is coming to take her back to the 21st century.
08:14What are you guys doing there?
08:16Oh digging out some thorns and slivers.
08:19Most people getting ready to go somewhere wouldn't be doing this.
08:24I last night we do have one what do you call it a slough?
08:29Do you call it a slough?
08:31Yeah.
08:32Out in the field and I never all my life would ever go into something like that.
08:35But last night I, oh we were just filthy from working in the garden and I actually went in it.
08:43And oh that water felt wonderful.
08:46Haven't had water all over my body for now three weeks.
08:50And it just felt wonderful.
08:52The things that you do out here.
08:54How about for leaving the era of the 1870s and going back.
08:59Do you have any thoughts on that?
09:00Yeah it's scary.
09:02It's a bit scary because you've put all these things out of your mind and you've coped with having little water.
09:09You've coped with having no bathroom and being filthy all the time.
09:14And I don't know what it's going to be like again today to perhaps have a good cup of coffee.
09:20But it's going to be with mixed emotions of happiness and sadness today.
09:25Hi.
09:26Bye bye honey. I love you.
09:40Don't let this thing run away on you.
09:46Bye bye.
09:48Bye bye hun.
09:49Very strange feeling watching her drive away in a vehicle.
10:02Actually I got choked up thinking, I don't know, just, we've been so together, so close for the past few weeks and it's just a very strange feeling having her not beside me.
10:20Family is really important to her. I stand behind her in her decision to go.
10:35She's struggling right now with loneliness etc.
10:37And my hope is that she'll be able to come back and really feel a part of the four of us.
10:45I think it'll be a good opportunity for her also to, I hope, miss what she has here.
10:52I think you're right. I think hopefully she'll go there and she'll see that how, how much more of a carefree sort of simple life we have here that's really, really a good life.
11:01There's no time for Tim and Frank to dwell on Deanna's struggle. Work is always waiting.
11:08I said we were starting to get the hang of it here. A couple of these rows here. You could just bowl right down it. Especially the gutter balls.
11:16Yeah, I was going to say one big gutter maybe.
11:20They've mastered plowing. Now they need to break up these furrows and get the soil ready for seeding.
11:27They get some extra horsepower from Alan Wett, a neighbour, who's brought over an antique disker to do the job.
11:32There's always been stuff like this around since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This particular disc is a little bit after the settlers era, but ones like it were around in that time.
11:46Probably from about the 1850s. Most of the wool, most of the common pieces of equipment that you would have seen farmers using in the 30s were invented about the time of the US Civil War and started to become common around that time.
11:59So whether the settlers would have brought something like this with them, I don't know, but somebody in the district would have had one.
12:05And if you want to get your sod caught up, you need something like this. Otherwise, they're digging this whole field up with a couple of forks and a hoe.
12:13So you can see the advantage of having a neighbour with a disc and preferably some fresh horses, even if they're a bit soft like Jigs and Amy are here tonight.
12:20We can't afford the equipment that he has, so we've hired him. We're paying him a dollar a day. That's with his horses and his equipment. We'll get from sunrise to sunset out of them.
12:37If we were disking on stubble, I'm sure these would stay put. I don't know how it's going to work here on the rough ground. As you can see, they're bouncing a fair bit.
12:57Why do you need the rocks, Ellen? Just to get more weight on the discs. They penetrate a lot better, especially on an angle if you've got more weight.
13:05Just about every old farmer's disc was loaded with rocks.
13:09Ellie, Amy, hit!
13:11Oh, this is really good. This is a place where we can go and just pull off.
13:32A little muddy in the bottom, but we'll pick the bloodsuckers off after.
13:40What did you say that?
13:41Yes, we have to do a tick check and a bloodsuckers check after all our swimming is done.
13:47Don't dirty up my water.
13:53I think I've got, there's a ton of mosquitoes out there and swimming in the slough and they're all over the place biting at you and it's not good.
14:05Today was the first really hot day since we've had all that rain.
14:08I was trying to milk Daisy tonight and they were swarming.
14:11I wore Frank's overalls and a long sleeve shirt to milk even though supposedly it's about 30 degrees out today.
14:17And they were still biting me right through it.
14:19So all I've done today is scratching. I have scabs everywhere.
14:23Anyway, it's starting to drive me nuts, but today's a lot of first day so I'll have to learn how to deal with it.
14:32It was kind of a scary feeling walking down that muddy path out to the 21st century.
14:47I wondered how I would react and of course all of you thought I wouldn't come back.
14:52But I did go to the funeral. It was about a three and a half hour trip.
14:55My father and mother drove me as well as an uncle from Toronto.
14:59And the whole way there they talked about the farm, about their time as children on the farm and as adults as well.
15:06They had a farm in Greenland, Manitoba.
15:08And, you know, for the first time I had a farm in Greenland, Manitoba.
15:12You know for the first time in my life I could identify with my dad, and my uncle as they talked about what to feed the pig, what to feed the chickens.
15:26And, you know, for the first time in my life, I could identify with my dad and my uncle as they talked about, you know, what to feed the pig, what to feed the chickens.
15:37With talking with all my relatives and all of their questions about the farm and all of their advice, it was just wonderful. It was just very, very encouraging.
15:46I came back with new eyes.
15:49I noticed a phenomenal change in her when she came back.
15:52There's a big deal of difference in her now than before. It seems like she likes it a lot more.
15:56And she wants to be here. She's happy to be here.
15:58And I think she's feeling she's getting something out of it now.
16:05The pioneers are beginning to work on Frank and Alana's house.
16:09They'll need to cut and peel 40 poplar trees for the walls.
16:16Well, this is our measuring stick.
16:17And that'll be the height of the walls.
16:23And then we've got two 1x4s on the top, one 1x4 on the bottom that'll hold the walls in place.
16:31They'll be all vertical.
16:33We know that it'll be a lot quicker to do it this way and a lot easier for the manpower that we have.
16:39We don't need to use the horses either to haul all the logs out.
16:42We can carry them by hand.
16:43The pioneers have looked at the trees and made a shrewd decision.
16:47They've abandoned the horizontal log house design that's common on the prairies.
16:52They think these short and skinny poplars will work best standing upright.
16:56And there's an old photograph from Pioneer Times that supports their theory.
17:01But that still means spending days in the bush in the company of bugs.
17:07We never thought we'd wear them.
17:08It's like a turtleneck and off we go.
17:15Fashion television.
17:19Oh.
17:21Go, woman.
17:21We work as quick as we can and we look forward to getting back out for a break again.
17:31And then you sweat.
17:32Like yesterday we were just drenched when we got out of here.
17:34Because you have so many clothes on and it's warm outside.
17:36But it's nicer than getting bitten.
17:38So you kind of pick which one you want.
17:40What do you do for the scratching part of the bike?
17:42Oh my goodness.
17:44I scratch all night.
17:45I'll find myself just sitting there and you're like, oh, I've got to stop.
17:48You're not thinking about it and you're always scratching.
17:50But yeah, a lot of scratching.
17:54Well, I've had mosquitoes.
17:55I mean, we always have mosquitoes at home at the lake.
17:57But man, nothing like here.
17:59When we're in a tent there, in the tent there, it's literally a hum.
18:03A hum around the tent.
18:05It's literally almost like an airplane or a helicopter hovering over it.
18:11But obviously you've got to just dress, just cover up.
18:16That's the best thing.
18:19Tim, your back's a mess.
18:20Yeah.
18:22It doesn't hurt.
18:24Like it doesn't mind over matter.
18:29Well, we just made smudges.
18:31We make them around the area, which is just smoke.
18:34And it gets rid of a lot of the mosquitoes.
18:36It bothers the women, the mosquitoes.
18:39Not really.
18:42If you think about them all the time, they'll bother you.
18:45I find going to the bathroom one of the worst things.
18:47You want to go to that outhouse and you get about 10 bites on your butt.
18:53Well, they've said this is what's going to drive us crazy, are the bugs.
18:59He's got his shirt off and his bonnet on.
19:01Yeah.
19:04Oh yeah, they work.
19:05There's a reason for these terrible clothes.
19:07You don't know who wore the bonnets.
19:11It just started raining.
19:13About, I'd say, half an hour ago.
19:14We were all working.
19:15We've come in.
19:16We all, well, we kind of stripped down and had sort of our really nice shower and had the rain.
19:23It's now pouring down the rain.
19:27It is really, really raining hard.
19:29It's not very windy.
19:30The weather is challenging the pioneers again.
19:40On this day, the average rainfall for the entire month of July falls in one four-hour period.
19:46It's not very windy.
20:16It's been harrowed, fifth harrowed, and first time turned in many, many, many years.
20:38But I think we're going to get a crop that will be enough to make it worthwhile.
20:48So I'm expecting a decent crop here.
20:51How much will it be?
20:52Well, I'm not a farmer, so I wouldn't even be able to tell you any kind of, I wouldn't know what to say.
21:00A lot of times, very honestly, a lot of times, you just simply do not know what to do.
21:08And I think the settlers, when they came across, they had a real deep faith.
21:13And they just said, I don't know what to do.
21:18Simply do not know what to do.
21:20And I think at those times, they would pray to God and say, God, you're just going to have to teach us, show us somehow.
21:27And I think that's sometimes what we do.
21:31But it's drawn us closer together, very much so.
21:33Any thoughts on that, Vianna?
21:39Well, I would agree with that.
21:40But I really, in a new way, I have said, I have prayed prayers that I'd never prayed before.
21:46That's for sure.
21:47Pray for strength and safety.
21:50Safety is a big issue.
21:51There's so many situations with the horses that could have ended up really serious.
21:59Well, grow.
22:00Well, this is a prairie storm just coming in.
22:08I don't know if you can tell by the sky, but it's just beautiful.
22:11Great as anything.
22:13That's the thunder.
22:14Well, that's the thunder.
22:15So we just kind of packed everything up.
22:19And we're getting ready to go inside.
22:20You can see the trees.
22:21It's really windy out.
22:23Wow.
22:24Oh, look at it.
22:27It's hail.
22:30It's so much for our crops.
22:33Come here.
22:34Come here.
22:35Go.
22:38I smell it.
22:40Get some.
22:40We're having a cold drink.
22:41Look at this.
22:43Woo.
22:44I.
22:44Get the tea out.
22:46So we've got a fair amount of water in here.
22:49Rained all last night.
22:50It was quite a storm.
22:51You see the bottom of our blanket?
22:55It's what we stuck our feet in all night.
22:57We're at a blanket.
22:58Oh, can't see.
22:59This is the day after the storm.
23:07The wind is really, really high.
23:11Everything around us is just soaked.
23:14Everything's under two inches of water.
23:16I guess we won't be finishing the well today.
23:19It's still full of water from the rain last night.
23:21It'll probably take a week and a half to drain out.
23:23Big mess.
23:25We might as well have ducks in there instead of chickens.
23:34The weather starts to improve.
23:37The logs for Frank and Alana's house are peeled and ready.
23:40It's time to put down the floor and raise the walls.
23:44It'll be small, 10 by 12, a little bit bigger than a 21st century garden shed.
23:53It'll be small.
24:23There's the edge of the bed, and then I have the window in here.
24:32I think it's amazing.
24:34It's really exciting to have privacy.
24:36We'll just have somewhere dry.
24:38We haven't been dry in a while.
24:40And just clean a four-weekly suite.
24:42It's not like the tar burning that's stuck in it.
24:44Keep our food dry.
24:45We can take some of the kitchen food and put it in here.
24:48It's probably good not to always be worrying about it every time it rains.
24:52It's happening fast.
24:54Is it?
24:55Yeah.
24:56It hurt my back a little bit.
24:57We were lifting the wall.
24:59And I have a compressed disc, and I guess I must have irritated it a bit,
25:06because the next morning when I was milking, I was just moving Daisy's leg out of the way,
25:11and I just pushed it aside, and it hit me hard.
25:14And I knew right then and there I was in trouble, because I couldn't breathe without pain.
25:21How does it feel to have the outside world in a box?
25:23I mean, are you any other stuff?
25:25I guess I'm in a sort of a dilemma where I have to have it.
25:29It's either that or let Frank do the work for the next, I'm afraid to say how long, maybe.
25:38Well, at least a couple of weeks he'd have to be working by himself.
25:42There's poison ivy on his side.
25:44He's got poison ivy on his stomach now.
25:46I don't know how I got it there.
25:48Lots of it?
25:49Yeah.
25:50Why don't touch it?
25:51Hmm.
25:52How much is he hurting?
25:53Yeah.
25:54Lots.
25:55He's too proud to admit it, but he is.
25:57I've sleep with him, so I know.
25:59You're not.
26:01I see him, he thinks I'm sleeping and he...
26:06Sorry.
26:08He winces.
26:10He's in a lot of pain.
26:12He really is.
26:16July 10th.
26:18Frank is scything wild hay.
26:20The pioneers figure they'll need 10 tons of it to feed Duke and Diamond and Daisy the cow through the long months of winter.
26:29They used to do this, you know, every year.
26:32I guess you get used to it and you get the proper rhythm down for it, which is really hard to get that down and actually have it always cutting.
26:40It's really hard work and there is not much hay in here.
26:45So you really, you put a lot of effort in it and you don't really get much return.
26:49What is the status now of your crop?
26:52Well, it's, it's planted.
26:55It's seeded.
26:56So right now I think we're, we're waiting for it to grow, which it's, it's under water right now.
27:03Everything is, it's, it's just total muck.
27:06And all the furrows are just full of water.
27:09They're all like little individual streams.
27:11Right now all our seeds are rotting out there.
27:13And the problem is, is the weather.
27:15On, on a dry year, our crop would be growing.
27:19I think you look at any farmer in the area, you know, when we go for walks or we go for a wagon ride, we see all the farmers in the area are having the same problems.
27:27I think we've done the very best with what we can and we're just going to have to, I don't know, leave it up to Mother Nature to decide how much we're going to get.
27:35Okay.
27:36Well, we've just come back from the Hutterite colony.
27:40It's Sunday and we went for a walk.
27:42And we went and visited the Hutterites.
27:44They were expecting us.
27:45And I must say we had a wonderful, wonderful time.
27:48I want to say that it was a very, kind of a, not embarrassing, but I felt very inadequate when I looked at their gardens, their fields.
28:09And then I thought of our mud hole and our cabbages and potatoes rotting in the swamp that we're in.
28:19And I was frustrated with it.
28:21I felt the exact same way.
28:22I was kind of embarrassed and frustrated and almost a little peeved.
28:27We're going to beat the odds.
28:29Oh, we definitely are.
28:31We have to shoot every animal in the area to live off of.
28:35Steal every other farmer's crop.
28:37Everybody's guarded.
28:38We farm from 2 to 5 a.m.
28:46Well, we can't steal.
28:47We won't eat.
28:52We're after the rooster today.
28:54The little rooster that's running over there.
28:58Don't we need him to get eggs from those other ones?
29:01No.
29:02We don't need him to get eggs, hun.
29:03Why?
29:04They don't need to get pregnant to have it lay an egg.
29:06Oh.
29:07We've got to let Alana kill someone one of these days.
29:09She's never...
29:10Do you want to kill her?
29:11She's never killed someone in her life.
29:13Well, she couldn't kill someone like this.
29:14Mind you, it could be, uh, habitual.
29:17She might go after us after her.
29:19Wow.
29:20Okay.
29:21Don't hit my fingers.
29:22When I trust her in an axe, I've seen her miss firewood.
29:25My beloved, we're gathered here in the presence of these witnesses
29:27to witness the execution of...
29:29Oh!
29:30Oh!
29:31Oh!
29:32Yes, silly woman!
29:34Sorry.
29:37Yes!
29:38What was that, Deanna?
29:39You missed!
29:40No, I cl...
29:41I did hit with the end.
29:42Ew!
29:44You wear your own gloves, Deanna!
29:45Oh!
29:46Oh!
29:47Oh!
29:48Well, I...
29:49I started with these.
29:50And actually we got the saw out to begin with.
29:51We got rid of the first layer.
29:52And this, I got closer.
29:53And now we're going with the final.
29:54And...
29:55Later, I'm going to finish off her toes.
29:57I'm going to give her the full pedicure.
29:58And give her the full...
29:59The full worked over.
30:00And...
30:01And is she enjoying this?
30:02Very much so.
30:03This is heaven.
30:04He's cute as a dragon.
30:05Oh!
30:06Oh!
30:07Oh!
30:08Oh!
30:09Oh!
30:10Oh!
30:11Oh!
30:12Oh!
30:13Oh!
30:14Oh!
30:15Oh!
30:16Oh!
30:17Oh!
30:18Oh!
30:19Oh!
30:20Oh!
30:21Oh!
30:22Oh!
30:23Oh!
30:24Oh!
30:25Oh!
30:26Oh!
30:27Oh!
30:28The mosquitoes are driving the horses quite crazy.
30:31And, uh...
30:32They're just scratching each other's backs right now.
30:51Frank and Alana are desperate to move in and escape the mosquitoes.
30:56But first, they need to seal the spaces between the logs.
31:00One option is stuffing moss into the cracks.
31:03This is the other, a mixture of straw and clay.
31:07It's a choice they'll live with, and perhaps regret, when winter arrives.
31:11And once we get the lumber, we'll do the roof, and it'll make you a bed, then you
31:15can move in.
31:16Because the minute it's chinked, after it's done, we can move in.
31:19So if you chink it beforehand...
31:21I'll chink all day tomorrow.
31:24Terrible bugs, eh, Frank?
31:25Oh, yeah.
31:26Yeah, they're really bad, and when you stop moving, they're just all over you.
31:30The best thing to do is, what we tend to do when we're sawing or anything, is just move
31:35around as much as you can.
31:36At night it's starting to make us feel kind of crazy.
31:39It's starting to get unbearable.
31:40We find we go to bed, if we can, especially Deanna and I, at about 8, 8.30, because after
31:45that they get intolerable and we want to get washed up before then.
31:48And to try and wash your hands and face, you just can't before that.
31:51There's no escape.
31:53They have no repellent, and they've tried all the home remedies.
31:56Things like eating loads of garlic, slathering on vinegar, or a mixture of dry mustard and
32:01water.
32:02Nothing works except the smudge fires.
32:05The mosquitoes are slowly grinding down their spirits.
32:09This is our other big thing right now.
32:12With the bugs so bad, if you forget to pee before 8.30 and all of a sudden you have to
32:16go, you can't come out.
32:17You just hear them swarming and you're too scared to come out and you suffer all night.
32:20So we've just lost all pride and if you haven't gone by 8.30 and you have to go, we just pee
32:25in the tent.
32:26I mean there's no other choice with the bugs like this.
32:28You'd rather that than have to come out here and deal with the bugs.
32:31So we always take our feed potties with us.
32:33It's just like winter.
32:35What are the logs for?
32:40Our beds were almost floating the other morning and we couldn't dry the tarp out.
32:44We took the tarp out all day to dry and then it started raining again.
32:48I mean there's not been a day that we can leave it out all day to dry and the ground underneath
32:51is so wet we were sweeping it with a broom to get rid of the puddles and we couldn't.
32:55So this, if you step on it with your socks, it's just soaked and it's probably been 3 days.
32:59So we have to put our ticks up on here because the bottom ones are already all moldy.
33:04I don't know if you can see a little bit, the sides here, they're all green and they're
33:10still damp.
33:11It's really frustrating, I hate looking down here and seeing water and mud.
33:15Deanna hates it too, we can't stand it.
33:17We've seriously considered building an ark.
33:25Every two weeks there's an uneasy collision between the past and the present.
33:53It begins with a four-mile trek to a rural intersection designated as the drop-off point
33:59for their supplies.
34:01Here rough sawn lumber for the two houses is transferred to the wagon, along with all the
34:05other bits and pieces they'll need.
34:07So you've been enjoying your holidays, Bob?
34:11Oh, holidays have been great.
34:14It's too much for one load.
34:20Half the lumber is dropped off in our neighbor's yard.
34:23There's time to stop and swap settler stories with someone who truly understands.
34:29Oh man, I drove so many of those things in my young days.
34:32Twelve years old I was out in the field.
34:34Yeah?
34:35Four horses.
34:36Were you plowing?
34:37Doing everything.
34:38Yeah?
34:39When the horses were trained late, in the fall, you know, it used to be cold, eh?
34:44You'd be sitting on the plow, you were cold.
34:45Yeah?
34:46You used to tie your reins around the lever of the plow.
34:49You'd walk behind the plow and them horses would go straight as a button, right down to
34:54the other end of the field.
34:55And you'd holler, ha, or gee, whichever it was going to be to turn.
34:58And they'd turn, walk around in the fur and come back again.
35:01Yeah?
35:02Well, the horses were worked every day, eh?
35:04They'd get to know this, you know?
35:08See you later.
35:13Some nights I don't even sleep for thinking about them.
35:19It's hard for them.
35:20We've been thinking they'd have a pretty hard time with it, under the conditions of
35:25the weather mainly.
35:26Well, it's hard enough for the watering guy to make hay and whatnot.
35:32It's virtually impossible for some of them right now to make hay.
35:36They're just starting to, and they've got to go and cut it with a thigh and feed two horses
35:41and a cow.
35:42I don't think they'll do it.
35:44Well, them two horses, they'll eat a bale of hay a day.
35:48You can figure on, well, 200 days, 210 days of feeding from freeze up till the grass is
35:56ready again.
35:57So there's over 200 bales just for the horses.
36:00Then the cow has to be fed.
36:02Well, they'll never cut that with a scythe, never under the sun they'll do that.
36:07Some rough times ahead for them?
36:08Yeah, if they have to do that, that's the rough time.
36:11That's the rough time.
36:13On the second trip, they pick up the raw supplies they'll need to feed and keep themselves for
36:18two more weeks.
36:19Everything is deducted from their budget of $500 1870.
36:22It's a trip that takes all day.
36:25We left about at 9.30, I guess, this morning for a shipment of wood, and it's probably around
36:345.30 now, and we've still got about a half hour of driving and delivery yet to do.
36:42It takes a long time.
36:43It takes a long time.
36:44You plan on a day when everything else was just a half hour or so and back home.
36:49Open it up, honey.
36:50Okay.
36:51That's that.
36:52Nice chicken.
36:54Hopefully that'll stay cold.
36:56Just in the ground?
36:58Yes.
36:59Yep.
37:00Just a fridge in the ground, and it's been okay until now with our milk and everything.
37:04Of course, it's getting warmer, so we'll have to find out.
37:06Might have to sink it in the well.
37:10Okay, all that stuff can stay out, the seeds and stuff.
37:13The mail arrives with the last load of lumber.
37:31Silence falls on the camp.
37:35For homesteaders, news from away has always been bittersweet.
37:39A reminder of loved ones left behind, and the real price of a pioneer adventure.
37:44Um, some friends, but I just read one from my son.
37:50All right.
37:57Well, we're building right now the roof, and we'll be putting on felt paper, 15-pound felt,
38:18and we'll be running it up and down the roof instead of lengthways as we do back home.
38:24Uh, we want to run it lengthway, uh, up and down so that it'll actually be our finished product for rainproofing this year.
38:31But we'll be putting the roof on today, probably finishing it off tomorrow.
38:37And then tomorrow we'll also be putting the windows in, doors, we'll build it.
38:43And then Frank and I will be building some interior shelving and tables.
38:48I don't think I've ever worked with boards like this at all.
38:59Any boards I've ever worked with were planed, never cut them by hand.
39:03I mean, we look at this place here, we've done absolutely every single cut by hand.
39:09Whether it was the logs, 2x6s, 2x8s, 2x4s rather, everything was done by hand.
39:25Probably the most favorite part of my day is taking Daisy out to the pasture,
39:28and I have to come through this field here, which is full of wildflowers,
39:31which, uh, change from day to day, the ones that come blooming out.
39:37That nice to see.
39:38Mm-hmm. Sure is.
39:43Good for the spirit.
39:44Very, very. This is where I feel free out here.
39:47In fact, we're going to be building our house, uh, just, uh, back over there,
39:52um, more in the prairie because it's a more freeing type of feeling for Tim and I,
39:57uh, than to be back in the bush.
39:59July 20th. After 44 nights in the tent, finally it's moving day,
40:05and Alana can't wait to settle in.
40:08This is my fancy curtain.
40:10That is one of the first things I did when I found out we were moving here
40:13a couple weeks ago, and I just thought it would make it homey all of a sudden,
40:16just make something so it felt like home instead of piles of wooden shells everywhere.
40:21And I thought, what else can you do? We have a bit of material.
40:23Um, we don't have any little, you know, kind of feminine type things,
40:28so Frank made one little box today, which is nice.
40:31He has it for all his gun and his hunting stuff down here.
40:34He kind of copied one that we have already.
40:36So that's his little guy box.
40:38And then the shelving it just for blankets and that sort of thing.
40:41And then we built the bed high on purpose.
40:43So we could store stuff here in the winter.
40:45Just maybe burlap bags of winter coats or,
40:48or some extra straw or, you know, some extra moss if we need it.
40:54My next thing is I'm just going to pick some flowers and put it in here
40:56and then it'll feel like home.
40:58Frank wants to do all the little guy things,
41:00and I just want to get the flowers and the curtains in,
41:02and get it clean, of course.
41:05When they were first together, Frank made a promise to Alana
41:08that someday she would have a log home.
41:11Today he'll keep that promise.
41:13It's more humble than she ever dreamed it would be.
41:16More welcome than any suburban mansion.
41:24Do you want to try putting it under the desk?
41:27I'm going to bang my feet against it every time we go in there.
41:30Bang your feet. Okay, so how about this corner?
41:32Why don't you just slide it under here every time?
41:34How am I going to open it up?
41:36You've got to put it here.
41:37Because it's still going to be over there, right?
41:39Yeah.
41:41And when all our company comes over there somewhere to sit.
41:50It's going to be really good to be off the ground
41:53and to be in some place normal and clean
41:56and be by ourselves, too, I think is something really, really important.
42:01We've been living with another couple for six weeks now in a tent
42:05that's wet and cramped and everything.
42:08Besides you getting all crabby because of all that,
42:11then you're also having other people there
42:13and you're trying to, I don't know, split everything up
42:15and try to get everyone room and it's really hard.
42:18With four people in a tent, it's kind of hard to come up with times
42:22without being really obvious about it.
42:24There have been a few.
42:26And then Nate leads over to me and he goes,
42:28Lana, they're having sex.
42:30I was like, oh, no.
42:31So I listened for a minute and it's like,
42:32you don't want to listen but you kind of want to know.
42:35So then I heard them like, oh.
42:37So he covered my ears and I was horrified.
42:39You know, you've just got a sheet between you.
42:41It's pretty bad.
42:42Alana and I, they always get up early.
42:45Well, they don't get up early.
42:47They just, we all wake up at the same time
42:49but they leave the tent right away to do chores.
42:51We usually get out of the tent about half an hour after them
42:53because they have morning chores.
42:54So we usually have that,
42:55at least we have that half an hour to ourselves.
42:57So we finally yelled at Deanna one day
42:59because she kept making comments about us sleeping in.
43:01And we kept saying, we never sleep in.
43:02And she really thinks we sleep in.
43:03So finally we said, Deanna, we just have sex.
43:05Every time you go out there and milk the cow, we're up.
43:08So that, yeah, exactly.
43:10So I think now she purposely tries to stay in the tent longer.
43:13Yeah, she's been sleeping in a bit herself.
43:15Just to screw up our system, I think, we had going.
43:19With Frank and Alana gone,
43:21Tim and Deanna had the chance to move the tent
43:24and haul out the tarp for its first big cleaning.
43:27Six weeks of mud and mold.
43:31The smell is unreal.
43:35Okay, look at that difference.
43:37That's what it's supposed to look like.
43:39A lot of hard elbow grease,
43:41but hey, it's going to smell a lot better
43:43when we go to bed tonight.
43:45So how many weeks have we lived in the tent now?
43:48Six.
43:49Just about six weeks.
43:50They have lived seven.
43:51Yeah.
43:52Six weeks we've lived in this little canvas tent with no floor.
43:55Side by side.
43:57Yeah.
43:58So it'll be a nice night.
43:59Able to sleep soundly.
44:03They won't have to put up with my snoring.
44:05And maybe have a little sex.
44:06Yeah.
44:07Maybe a lot.
44:08That's a full moon.
44:11Yeah.
44:12Almost.
44:13Woo!
44:14Okay.
44:23Well tonight's the first night in our new cabin.
44:26It's really exciting.
44:28We got to wash tonight inside and actually get to stand on something hard after and we feel
44:35totally clean.
44:36We're on our new bed.
44:37We built it up.
44:38Frank built it up really high so that we can store stuff underneath it.
44:41And we just stuffed our ticks.
44:42So I don't know if you guys can tell in there, but they're really big.
44:45Yeah.
44:46We'll try out this new bed tonight.
44:48Mmm.
44:49Well let's pray.
44:50Dear Lord, as we pack up and plan on leaving, thank you for a beautiful day we can travel
45:02on.
45:03Thank you for seven weeks of hell.
45:05And we thank you for this food.
45:08Our last meal.
45:09Amen.
45:10And they're leaving.
45:11That's it.
45:12Over to you Alana.
45:13I've had it with us boys.
45:16Hell here.
45:17Prairie Purgatory.
45:18Prairie Purgatory.
45:19That's a perfect word.
45:22Screw off everybody out there drinking your tippeworkles.
45:25If you think it's easy out here, don cherry and romance.
45:30Romance.
45:31Yeah.
45:32That's a couple of times.
45:33That's romantic.
45:34Do I look at us?
45:35I'll tell you how romantic it is.
45:37Look at us.
45:38You guys had no clue whatsoever.
45:40Good thing you didn't get picked.
45:42You can have the romance.
45:43You can have the honeymoon shack out there.
45:45I'm getting more action with mostitos.
45:47I'm going back to the tent tomorrow.
45:49That's how nice it should be.
45:50No she's gone.
45:51She hasn't paid her rent.
45:52I'm practicing snoring.
45:53Can she's young?
45:54That's how fantastic I'm here.
45:55No?
45:56No.
45:57No?
45:58No?
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